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The 2017 Poster Design & More!

Magic City Art Connection’s (MCAC) design campaign is always rewarding to bring to life. It is the face of the festival, and builds excitement for the highly anticipated art explosion that transforms downtown Birmingham’s Linn Park each Spring. 2017 is the second year MCAC has chosen to feature the work of its Emerging Artist award recipient on the poster and festival marketing campaign. In 2013, Christopher Davis and his “Boxer” received that dual honor. This year, the captivating botanical monoprints of Birmingham’s Celeste Amparo Pfau will announce to the community the 34th annual festival happening April 28-30.

The search for a graphic designer who could take Celeste’s work and create a compelling visual campaign was the next step. It began at a meeting with Doug Barrett, Associate Professor of Graphic Design at UAB. He had a great recommendation for us. Enter recent UAB graduate, Heather Garner. Heather was also a participant in UAB’s Bloom Studio, a student-run, design studio that focuses on “DESIGN FOR GOOD” projects for local non-profits, and un­der-served communities. She was available and eager to collaborate with the Festival.

With artist and designer in place, it was time to pick a work of art for MCAC’s artist-centric poster series. As we all looked over Celeste’s body of work, it became clear that picking one particular piece would be a difficult task. But a synergy of thought suddenly emerged, to feature several of Celeste’s works, or pieces of them, across the campaign. We instantly gravitated to her “Leaf Reassembly Series”prints, which were devoid of color, but had powerful and graphic visual impact.

We left Heather with many ideas swirling in her head about the possible design options for poster, flyer, t-shirt, print ads, and more. When we saw her again, she presented her first design. It was for the festival print ad, and brought immediate smiles and adulation. Subsequent designs followed suit and were met with the same affirmation. It’s a truly beautiful and visually engaging campaign. Simple in its elegance, but with impact. And there are more to come!

Keep your eyes peeled around town for posters. Pick up a flyer (see below). Or catch one of the ads (see below) as you leaf through April issues of Alabama Baby & Child Magazine, B-Metro, Birmingham Doins, Birmingham Magazine, Hoover’s Magazine, Iron City Ink, Over the Mountain Journal, Shelby Living Magazine, and Weld.

Learn more about our 2017 Emerging Artist, Celeste Amparo Pfau, plus see more of her work, click here.